Net profit is the one commonly used by all financial commentators in relation to any company and it is the one that makes most sense. It is after the tax is paid, the real amount left to distribute to investors or……Executives.
Not exactly. Net Profit includes non-cash expenses e.g. depreciation, impairments which, as you saw in 2014 for QF and FY19 for VA, can be significant. Free cash flow is a better metric to understand what is ‘left over’ that can be reinvested into the business, buy back shares, pay distributions or pay down debt. A better indicator of company health when assessing.
Another of the comments was to make sure you are comparing the average fleet age with an airline with a similar number of aircraft. I do not accept that premise because this is an "average" fleet age. All airlines pretty much have a different number of planes
It is mathematical and the ’snapshot' methodology isn’t precise to enable fair fleet comparisons or strategy. I did already say though that I was in agreement QF needs to update the fleet.